Kushina Uzumaki

Li Tong took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he whipped his head around to look behind him.

It was still the forest, stretching out as far as the eye could see...

"You won't find it," said Chen He, who stood to the side wearing a mask.

Li Tong was now the only one left; White Fang and Qingsuo did not seem to have emerged from the Anbu base.

"Let's go. I will take you away from here. Stay close to me and don't wander off, or you will be in danger." A muffled voice came from behind Chen He's mask, and with that, he began to walk forward.

Li Tong followed behind him, constantly scanning his surroundings.

He wanted to know where he was. Was the Anbu base not inside Konoha? Because there was no scenery nearby that Li Tong recognized, he had no way of knowing his current location.

"I'll carry you. If we keep walking on foot like this, it will take days to get out of here," Chen He said suddenly. He turned around, and without waiting for Li Tong to respond, he grabbed Li Tong's shoulder and darted off.

Chen He was a Jonin!

His speed was incredibly fast! The limit for an ordinary person was about ten meters per second, but as a ninja, as a Jonin, Chen He's limit was unimaginable. Furthermore, because of his immense strength, he could completely ignore the terrain in this forest... Of course, he couldn't maintain his maximum speed while carrying someone, but he was still moving at twenty to thirty meters per second.

For Chen He, a kilometer was only a journey of about half a minute.

Being carried at such high speed, the gale blowing against his body felt like it was piercing his skin and drilling into his bones, yet Li Tong did not feel very cold... His current body had undergone the brutal training of Amegakure; though thin, it was exceptionally tough.

More than ten minutes later.

"Stop! Wait a second!" Li Tong suddenly shouted.

"Hm?" The high-speed blur stopped abruptly. The two were at the edge of the forest, facing a vast open area with a massive lake over three hundred meters in diameter!

"A bath, can I take a bath? I'm too dirty," Li Tong said, pointing at the lake.

Chen He looked Li Tong up and down, then let go and nodded. "Go ahead."

Li Tong rushed toward the lake like a dog off a leash, stripping as he ran. Since it was only Li Tong and Chen He, both men, Li Tong didn't feel the need to be modest.

This was perhaps the most refreshing bath Li Tong had ever taken.

Because he had never been this dirty before.

Chen He walked to the lakeshore and turned his back. Although they were both male, he had no interest in watching a boy bathe; it was still a bit strange, after all... Li Tong was already splashing around in the lake, scrubbing his body vigorously with both hands and occasionally diving underwater to hold his breath. This natural lake was crystal clear with excellent water quality, and Li Tong was enjoying himself immensely.

"I'll give you five minutes," Chen He said from the shore.

"Five minutes isn't enough to get clean..." Li Tong swam back and forth in the lake.

"You only have five minutes," Chen He repeated.

"Uh... what about clothes? I don't have any," Li Tong's eyes flickered. "My previous clothes were shredded. I can't wash myself clean only to put on rags that are torn and filthy again, can I? I'm a Konoha ninja now."

Chen He turned his head slightly and glanced at the tattered clothes Li Tong had left on the shore. They were indeed excessively dirty, covered not only in many tears but also mud and bloodstains.

"Wait for me and don't wander off. It's safe here, but if you walk around aimlessly, you might trigger the traps in the forest and die," Chen He said in a low voice. He then swept his arm, and a gust of wind lifted the scattered rags from the ground, swirling them into his hand. Chen He transformed into a blur and sped away.

He had taken the tattered clothes with him.

It was hard to tell if he did it to prevent Li Tong from running away.

But Li Tong didn't mind. He had asked Chen He to fetch clothes specifically to buy himself more time to wash; he had no desire to go streaking.

"So comfortable... so clean..." The lake was large, and as Li Tong washed, he drifted toward the center. As a magician who often performed underwater, Li Tong was an excellent swimmer. The center of the lake was perhaps five or six meters deep, but Li Tong floated effortlessly on the surface.

A few minutes later.

Li Tong had finished playing in the center of the lake and was about to swim back to the shore when he suddenly noticed something beneath the clear water. Li Tong took a deep breath and dove straight down!

There were fish at the bottom of the lake.

Li Tong scattered the school of fish and dove until he reached a patch of aquatic plants. Only then did he clearly see what the reflective object was: a katana... He had no idea who had dropped it there.

The blade had been submerged in the lake for who knows how long, yet it remained as bright as new.

Li Tong gripped the hilt and swam back toward the shore.

Not long after Li Tong dove to the bottom of the lake, on the grassy western bank.

Whoosh!

A whirlwind suddenly whipped up, and a girl of about eight or nine years old with fiery red hair appeared out of thin air, her hands held together in a seal. The wind brushed past, her long hair dancing as if leaping flames.

The girl's eyes were red, her expression sorrowful, with tear tracks still visible on her cheeks.

"Grandma Mito..." The girl sobbed, took a few steps forward, then sat on the grassy slope by the lake, hugging her knees and staring blankly at the calm water, saying nothing.

Whoosh!

A tall figure appeared behind the girl like a ghost, wrapped in a black cloak and wearing a mask—it was a Konoha Anbu ninja.

"Lord Shenzhu, is it true that... Lord Mito is really going to..." The girl asked, but she couldn't finish her sentence, only wiping away her tears.

"Everyone must die eventually. Lord Mito passing away at such an advanced age can be considered a peaceful end," the Anbu ninja known as Lord Shenzhu said in a hoarse voice.

"But... I don't want that. I haven't yet... I..." The girl sobbed.

Suddenly!

Ripples appeared on the surface of the lake, a dozen meters from the shore. Shenzhu instantly sensed the anomaly; his hand, resting on the hilt of his sword, tightened, and he drew the blade halfway from its scabbard.

Splash!

Water erupted from the surface of the lake.

"Pfft!" Li Tong, having surfaced near the shore, stood up in the water and spat out a mouthful, then raised his hand to wipe his face vigorously; his body froze the moment his fingers cleared his eyes, for through the gaps between his fingers, Li Tong saw a girl with fiery red hair sitting with her knees drawn up on the grassy slope by the bank.

The girl's eyes were already wide, her expression one of terror as she stared at the naked man with a blade who had suddenly appeared before her.

Their eyes met!

Li Tong was stunned.

The girl was equally stunned.

The air felt suffocating, the atmosphere completely frozen.

"Eek! Perverted killer!!!" The girl clutched her head and let out a sharp scream that nearly pierced his eardrums.

At the same time, because his gaze had focused, Li Tong saw the girl's status information.

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Name: Kushina Uzumaki.

Identity: Student at the Konoha Ninja Academy in the Land of Fire, successor to the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

Reputation: 0 points.

Relationship: Hostile.

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